Recently I had a malware destroy many of my files and programs. It was so serious that it dug deep and managed to destroy some items in the Control Panel. I tried to do a restore but it simply makes things worse. Now icons are distorted and files/programs destroyed.

Now, I need to reformat the hard drive and install Windows 7 and I’m having problems.

Fortunately I made the install discs --- as it was suggested when I purchased the computer. And I have the Windows 7 Upgrade key, since I upgraded on purchase to a Home Premium version.

So here’s the problem, I tried to follow the owner's instructions to search “Recovering the Internal Storage Drive” and the instructions do not come up. Perhaps the virus/malware destroyed that information, but I’m not sure.

So I’m stuck on how to proceed. I’m a bit afraid to use the recovery discs without knowing the process for fear that the malware might also destroy those discs.

Re: Hard Drive Recovery

There's very little chance that the malware messed up your Toshiba Recovery partition. But, it's not uncommon for it to become corrupted over time anyway. That's why you make a set of recovery disks, just in case that happens.

It sounds like you've been diligent in your reading & preparation, etc. But, just to make sure, when you try to run the recovery utility from the hard drive, you need to power off your unit, press and hold down the '0' (zero) key as you power on, and keep holding down the '0' key until you see the Toshiba Recovery menu.

No joy? Time to use your recovery disks. There is absolutely no chance the malware wil be able to corrupt your recovery disks. The malware is on your hard drive, almost without doubt just as part of the Windows installation. You will be booting off the recovery disks, so the malware program will have no chance to start. The first thing the recovery disks will do is re-partition and re-format your hard drive. This should wipe out all traces of the malware.

With the machine powered on, open your DVD drive, power off the unit by holding the power button down for at least 5 seconds, insert recovery disk 1 and close the DVD drive, power on, as soon as you see the Toshiba logo press the F12 key at the top of the keyboard to enter the Boot Sequence menu, use the up-down arrow keys to select the CD/DVD Optical Disk Drive, hit 'Enter' to boot from that drive.

With either the HDD or Disk recovery methods, select the return the unit to its factory default out-of-the-box settings.

Re: Hard Drive Recovery

When you come across the virus/malware destroy, you should not be Panic. There is no need to panic. If you computer can recognize your hard disk. You have the chance to recover all your data from the disk by the help of data recovery software. As to the partitions lost/damaged, I would suggest you try Yesterdata. The "HDD partitions Lost/Damaged" module may solve your problems easily.

If you have formatted your hard disk complete, don't write new data to it. (The Windows OS Only). Data overwritten is terrible for your lost data.